Ahead of Monday's holiday for the Emperor's birthday, the Japanese stock market had ended the two-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 600 points or 1.7 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 38,775-point plateau although it figures to head south again on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on growing U.S. tariff concerns. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian markets are also expected to open under pressure.
The Nikkei finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the automobile producers, weakness from the financial shares and a mixed picture from the technology stocks.
For the day, the index added 98.90 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 38,776.94 after trading between 38,456.53 and 38,808.81.
Among the actives, Nissan Motor skyrocketed 9.47 percent, while Mazda Motor jumped 1.86 percent, Toyota Motor dipped 0.17 percent, Honda Motor advanced 0.99 percent, Softbank Group shed 0.65 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial skidded 1.17 percent, Mizuho Financial tanked 2.48 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial sank 0.82 percent, Sony Group spiked 2.17 percent, Panasonic Holdings strengthened 1.35 percent, Hitachi slumped 2.87 percent and Mitsubishi Electric was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened higher on Monday but faded quickly and finished mixed.
The Dow added 33.19 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 43,461.21, while the NASDAQ tumbled 237.08 points or 1.21 percent to close at 19,286.93 and the S&P 500 sank 29.88 points or 0.50 percent to end at 5,983.25.
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